Memories Frozen in Time
by CeilingSapph
Summary: Thirteen years is a long time to be separated from your sister. Every memory they have of each other, Anna and Elsa cherish. (A series of not quite chronological drabbles. Lots of sisterly fluff.)
1. Hand of Time

**A/N**

**I do not own Frozen, or any of its characters.**

**First of many drabbles focusing on Anna and Elsa~  
Bonus points if you can figure out the symbolism surrounding the clock.**

**Inspired by "Hand of Time" by Reflection Theory.**

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**Hand of Time**

_Tick_

Anna gazed up at the mighty clock towering above her in the hall. Without the company of Elsa, she had grown accustomed to spending hours at a time lying beside it, watching the seconds pass her by, the ticking sound echoing through her mind. She wanted to tell the hands to turn around and go the other way, and bring back the old Elsa she knew and loved. Life used to be so much fun when she and her sister spent all their time together.

The strawberry blonde closed her eyes, carefully listening to the clock's rhythmic tempo. It haunted her, always there, and always moving further and further away from the days when she and Elsa were together. And yet, it reassured her. She didn't know what the future held, but Anna figured that it couldn't be worse than this. Things would change. Elsa would come out of her room soon enough, and then, things would be just like they used to be.

_Tock_

Elsa paced back and forth in her room, snowflakes slowly whirling around her. Every now and then, she would glance out her window and see that the sun had moved further across the sky. She sighed.

In the past, there had been days that she thought she could summon the courage to leave her room to play with Anna. Each time, though, she would dismissively convince herself to wait until the day she was able to control her powers. But that day never came. They only grew stronger. More uncontrollable.

Defeated, she sat down against her bedroom door. Down the hall, she could hear Anna clicking her tongue in sync with the sound of the grandfather clock. It was soothing, almost hypnotic. Tired and frustrated, Elsa slowly drifted off to sleep.

_Tick_

Anna's eyes narrowed at the clock. She kept telling herself that if she just gave Elsa more time, everything would be okay. The little girl huffed. It had been five years now. Five years of wishing for the clock to tick a bit faster. Five years of waiting around for her big sister.

Today was the day she would stop waiting, Anna decided.

She hopped to her feet, and dashed downstairs and out into the snow, in such a hurry that she neglected to put on warmer clothes. Saving time was more important.

_Tock_

Elsa was shaken awake by a rhythmic knock on her door. Please no. She didn't want to deal with the emotional strain of ignoring Anna. At least not right now.

The knocking stopped, and, except for the clock in the hall, everything was silent. Elsa didn't say anything. She didn't have to. Anna would chime in at any moment. It wouldn't matter what her sister would say. The very sound of her voice was enough to break Elsa's heart.

"Elsa!" Her sister's voice rang from the other side of the door, "Look outside!" Elsa took note that there was an exhausted edge to Anna's cheery tone, but she sent the thought to the back of her mind as she stood up to look out her window. Her eyes widened. There were a dozen snowmen outside, all of them looking up at her, their stick arms extended high in the air, as if to wave to her.

_Tick_

For a long time she stayed silent, unsure if she should say anything back to Anna. Elsa wanted more than anything to tell her how much she loved each and every one of the snowmen her little sister had built her.

"Anna…" the elder sister began, "thank you. They're lovely." Elsa smiled, still gazing down at the crowd of snowmen.

_Tock_

Elsa waited. Wasn't Anna going to say anything else? She hadn't heard her younger sister stray away from her door, so she knew Anna was still out there.

_Tick_

"Anna?" Elsa asked, almost inaudibly. She walked back to the door and sat down. "Anna, are you there?"

_Tock_

Down the hall, the clock chimed.

_Tick_

Pressing her ear to the door, Elsa could hear her sister's breathing. It was shaky, and out of sync with the ticking that echoed through the hall. The elder sister's pulse raced. _Was Anna okay?_ _What if something's wrong? Everyone else in the castle was asleep by now._

_Tock_

She reached for the doorknob, and, before she could second guess herself, Elsa creaked the door open, peering down at Anna. Her eyes widened as she saw her sister was curled up on the floor, shivering violently. Elsa wanted to kneel down and wrap her arms around her sister and tell her that everything would be okay.

_Tick_

Shutting her eyes tight, the older sister took a deep breath. She would just quickly carry Anna back to her room, throw some blankets on her, and everything would be okay. Looking down at her hands, she felt her fingertips quiver with cold under her gloves. _Calm down. It'll be okay._

_Tock_

Elsa reached down, and carefully picked up her sister, and carried Anna down the hall towards her own room. A few snowflakes whirled around Elsa as she walked, and she felt ice prickle her palms. She began to panic. More snowflakes, along with a few small shards of ice spun around her, ready to strike at any moment. She took another deep breath, then, while supporting Anna with her right arm, with one swift movement of her left arm, she sent the snow and ice flying away from her and her sister, accidentally striking the grandfather clock instead. Better it than Anna, she figured.

After entering Anna's room and gently placing the younger princess in her own bed, the platinum blonde scoured every corner of her sister's room for any blankets she could find, in an attempt to keep Anna from freezing.

Laying the last of the bedsheets over her sister, Elsa smiled. Anna had stopped shivering, and her breathing returned to its regular rhythm.

Elsa turned to walk back to her room, but she stopped cold in her tracks when she heard Anna begin to stir.

"Elsa?"

It took the older sister a moment to respond. "…Y-yes, Anna?"

"Please don't leave…" Her voice trailed off.

Elsa walked over and sat on the edge of the bed next to Anna. "I won't."

The next morning, when Anna woke up, the castle was silent. She found Elsa asleep on the floor next to her bed. There she was. The sister who's always locked away in her own room. For a while, Anna simply watched her. That is, until something else caught her attention. The ticking. Where was the ticking?

Careful not to wake her big sister, Anna snuck out into the hall. The grandfather clock loomed over her, completely frozen, both in time, and in ice.


	2. Flare

**Flare**

Anna slumped over, her back against Elsa's door. The poor seven year old princess just couldn't seem to get her sister to stray from her room, or, at the very least, let her in. A chill ran down her spine, and she shivered. _Why was Elsa's door always so cold, anyway?_ Anna couldn't help but wonder if the reason Elsa was so grumpy all the time was because her room was cold.

* * *

Looking back, Anna had to admit this was probably one of her worst plans to try to get Elsa to play with her. But at the time, it seemed like a pretty fabulous idea to the little princess.

* * *

Excited to get her plan into motion, she leapt up from her spot by Elsa's door, and made her way through the halls, down the staircase, and into the kitchen. Anna clumsily climbed up to reach one of the cabinets, and pulled out two large mugs.

By the time Anna emerged from the kitchen, she held two steamy mugs of hot chocolate, one in each hand. Looking down at them, she frowned. _Hot chocolate's great, but it's not enough to warm up an entire room. She'd need something really warm for that._ Still carrying the hot chocolate, Anna began to roam the castle, in search of more warm stuff.

Eventually, she reached the library. Countless books lined the walls, filling the bookcases that towered above her. On the rare occasions that Elsa left her room, Anna noticed that it was almost always so that she could visit the library, and sneak a stack of books off the shelves and back into her room. Anna put down the two mugs of hot chocolate, and pulled a book out of the bookcase to her right. Balancing the book on her left hand, she placed the mugs on top of the book with her right. A book wasn't really warm, but she decided to bring one with to give to Elsa for good measure.

Before Anna could turn to leave and continue her search, her gaze settled upon the library's fireplace. Fire was plenty hot, and it could definitely heat a whole room. Still holding the book and hot chocolate, Anna walked over to the glowing fire, feeling its warmth intensify as she got closer. _But how would she get it up to Elsa's room?_ _Maybe she could carry a good sized piece of firewood, with only the tip engulfed in flames, almost like carrying a torch._ Careful not to drop the book or hot chocolate, Anna picked up a stray piece of firewood and held it close to the flames until the tip was ignited.

Cautiously, she walked up the stairs and through the halls, making sure not to drop anything as she made her way to Elsa's room. Excitedly, she went to knock on her sister's door, only to be stopped by the makeshift torch she carried, along with the book and hot chocolate. How could she knock while carrying all this stuff? Slowly, she moved the burning piece of wood from her right hand to the crook of her left arm, still balancing the book and hot chocolate on her left palm, and then raised her hand up to the door, and knocked several times.

Elsa sighed. This was the third time today that Anna had come knocking on her door. She was expecting to hear Anna chime in and say "Elsa let's go build a snowman!" or something similar. But instead, she heard a scream, and then a crash. Elsa swung her head over to look at where the noise came from, only to be met by the sight of her door slowly catching fire.

For a moment Elsa stood there, very confused as to what had just occurred. However, thoughts of her sister's scream moments earlier snapped her back to reality. In an attempt to save what was left of her apparently very flammable door, she tore off her gloves and shot ice at the door, effectively extinguishing the flames.

Replacing her gloves on her hands, Elsa walked over to the door, and peered down through one of the holes created by the fire, her eyes meeting Anna's. Her little sister wore an expression of bewilderment painted across her face, and the tips of her braids were singed. Anna appeared to be clutching a book and two mugs. Not far away, a charred piece of firewood lay on the floor, the last of its embers slowly burning out.

"I- I'm sorry," Anna choked out. "I thought you were sad because your room was cold so I wanted to make it warmer…" her voice trailed off, and lowered her gaze. Her eyes caught the two mugs of hot chocolate that, by some miracle, had not been spilled. "I made hot chocolate," she offered, looking back up at her sister, holding out one of the mugs.

Elsa opened what was left of the door her sister burned down, and gave her a smile. "Thank you, Anna," she murmured, gratefully accepting the mug, and sitting down on the floor next to Anna.

Anna frowned at her hot chocolate, noticing that it was already cool. "Sorry it's not hot anymore."

"That's okay," Elsa hummed, "I like it better cold, anyway."

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**A/N**

**This little drabble was largely inspired by a friend of mine (you know who you are) who once tore down a door and accidentally set her sister's hair on fire. Probably not the best thing for a younger sister to do, but hey. It's a fabulous thing to write a story about.**

**Disclaimer: Fanfiction writer CeilingSapph does not encourage the use of fire and/or highly flammable objects to get others to drink hot chocolate with you.**


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